Fortunate Kyarikunda, a Law Enforcement Officer at Rubanda district local government, has filed an application to set aside the ruling in favor of her ex-fiance Richard Tumwiine, a teacher and resident of Kambuga sub-county in Kanungu district. The court had ordered Kyarikunda to compensate Tumwiine Shillings 10 million after she breached their marriage promise.
This comes after her previous application seeking to overturn the ruling was dismissed by the court on March 14, 2023. Kyarikunda’s lawyers, Bikangiso and Company Advocates and Sarah Nasike of M/S Nasike and Company Advocates have petitioned the Chief Magistrates Court in Kanungu, arguing that she was not served a summons to file a defense during the original case.
The court is expected to issue its ruling on Kyarikunda’s petition on March 30, 2023. Tumwiine’s lawyer, Erasmus Mbabazi, has dismissed Kyarikunda’s latest application as lacking merit and a waste of time, further delaying the period of payment.
Tumwiine and Kyarikunda, who are both teachers, had a romantic relationship that started in 2015 at Kiringa Primary School in Kambuga sub-county. They entered a marriage agreement in 2018, and Tumwiine supported Kyarikunda financially to complete her Diploma in Legal Practice at the Law Development Centre in Kampala, spending 9.4 million shillings on her education.
However, Kyarikunda backed out of their marriage plan in February 2022, citing Tumwiine’s age, 60, as the reason for her decision. In response, Tumwiine filed a case accusing Kyarikunda of breaching their marriage promise and asked the court to compel her to refund the money he had invested in her education.
In his ruling in January 2023, Kanungu Grade One Magistrate Asanasio Mukobi held that Tumwiine was entitled to reimbursement of the money he spent on Kyarikunda’s education, plus an additional Shillings One million as general damages for inconveniences and psychological anguish suffered as Kyarikunda did not fulfill the promise to marry him.
Kyarikunda neither submitted a defense nor attended the proceedings in court.
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